The Return of Zaywop
The Chattanooga-rapper makes his comeback with “The Sun’s Tirade”
After a couple of quiet years, Isaiah Rashad has returned and presented us a deeply introspective piece of work in “The Sun’s Tirade,” which showcases the Chattanooga-rapper’s skills as he opens about the problems he faces in life.
At a first glance, “The Sun’s Tirade” is more of the same. It follows the same formula as Rashad’s previous work, “Cilvia Demo”. Rashad gives us clever words delivered with a slurred Southern drawl over foggy instrumentals. There are very few high or lows as the album tends to stay at the same level all throughout.
A closer look reveals that while it is it similar, “The Sun’s Tirade” stands apart from “Cilvia Demo”. It features an older Isaiah Rashad that has had some time to experience life and figure himself out in the scheme of things. He’s had success and failure, which are the perfect fodder for a rapper that tends to look inward rather than outward for material. Rashad knows this and decides to stick to his strengths rather than try switch things up just to keep up with his contemporaries.
The result is an album that is unique: it has a Southern influence that acts as the foundation that is built upon with L.A. beats that carry Rashad’s thoughts and emotions. It’s a recipe that few could work with and have success with, but Rashad makes it work as only he could. He lays out his worries and insecurities for the world to see over seventeen tracks. The sheer number of tracks gave Rashad room to mess around and try new things in terms of delivery. He brings back his signature rap style of slurring words and creating hooks with out of this world alliteration while also adding a bit of blues-inspired singing to the mix.
With that said, “The Sun’s Tirade” does have a drawback or two. It seems a bit aimless, with Rashad bouncing back and forth between topics and emotional states. Combine that with that with the overall length of the album and it can become a bit overwhelming and difficult to keep up with Rashad’s train of thought. It all comes together once we take a step back and look at the bigger picture, though. The topic of each song may be drastically different but the album is all about Rashad and the things he likes. This is evidenced in the closing track “Find a Topic (homies begged)” when he raps “You, you my favorite topic.”
It goes without saying that this album would not have seen the light of day if not for the executives of Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE). Word has it that Rashad was almost dropped from the label a total of three times in between the release of Cilvia Demo and The Sun’s Tirade due to his drug and alcohol addictions. Rather than shy away from this, Rashad decided to include this aspect of his life into the album. Dave Free, a co-president of Top Dawg Entertainment, makes recurring appearances throughout the album in the form of skits. The skits play out like voicemails in which Free leaves Rashad hilarious and out of pocket messages.
“The Sun’s Tirade” is Rashad wearing his heart on his sleeve. He let everything show for the world to see and we should thank him for it. While it’s not a groundbreaking piece of work, it’s definitely one that deserves to be on rotation for a while.
